Extortionists Target Ashley Madison Users
Summary: After the AshleyMadison.com user database was leaked online, extortionists began sending emails demanding exactly 1.0000001 Bitcoins (about $225 USD) within 7 days from users whose details appeared in the dump. Trend Micro chief cybersecurity officer Tom Kellerman said the attempts would grow in number and sophistication and evolve into spear-phishing campaigns delivering ransomware, and the leak included some 15,000 email addresses ending in dot-mil, which Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the DoD is investigating.
What's compelling: The leaked database carried roughly 15,000 .mil addresses, and adultery is a prosecutable offense under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, so the extortion surface here reaches past embarrassed individuals into military personnel and, as Kellerman warned, their spouses as phishing targets.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
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